john scherf

sacd/dsd
It's all about the sound.

Remember the first time you heard the sound ? Maybe in a club, or a concert hall, but it was there - that sound that called you a little further into the music. The soft rasp of horsehair on gut, the musty decay of a lone voice rolling through a stone chapel, the clarity of a single small bell. It drew your concentration and held it, and since then you've sought to repeat the flavor of the experience.

A friend called me recently, having just installed a Super Audio CD system in his home, to thank me, tongue-in-cheek, for decreasing his productivity. He told me that before, he could listen to music and read, or write, or work, or pay bills. Now, he said, he listened to the music. There was a human connection, he explained, an emotional warmth emanating from the music, that made other activity feel intrusive. The musical message was a very powerful one, and he didn't want to disturb it. For him, the sound was back.

The musical message is a very powerful one, and until now, it could only be conveyed by live sound - from one person to another person. With SACD, it finally feels like that other person is in the room with you. And it's breathtaking.

Super Audio CD was created by Sony and Phillips, using a new digital encoding process called Direct Stream Digital (DSD). Regular CD technology, called PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) is based on a sampling frequency of 44,100 times per second and a 16-bit word length. DSD's one bit word system samples the musical signal more than 2.8 million times per second and avoids the need for number crunching math steps that distort and muddy the sound.

DSD generates a digital pulse train that appears similar to the analog waveform it represents. Where PCM frequency response extends to 20,000 Hertz, DSD technology can reach 100,000 Hertz. Where PCM has a dynamic range of 96 dB, DSD recording can achieve 120 dB across the entire audible range. There are now DSD recorders that can make stunningly vivid original DSD recordings, as well as remix and remaster older analog recordings into the DSD system for SACD release.

"SACD is so good it has the potential to permanently change the way we listen to music." (Downbeat Magazine, 16 May 2002)

For more info and FAQ about SACD, DSD, and DVD-A, click on the following links: (Artegra) and (Sony SACD).